HOME

REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Next show:

BAD FRIDAY!
Peluché,
Dead Coast,
Les Sueques,
Calva Louise,
Flights of Helios,
Videocean,
Dirty Blondes
+ SoundsXP DJs

The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
3pm till late

Buy tickets here

On Our iPod

Latest Forum Posts

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Single/Download Review

Pete Roe
Merry-Go-Round Communion Records

Article written by Paul D - Jun 8, 2010

Pete Roe

Pete Roe has waited quite a while for this moment. He spent many hours in the early Noughties writing with Beth Rowley about what was going on in and around the pub he lived above. His early work includes Propeller, a self released album full of gentle melodies with intricate acoustic guitar and more recently an EP called Animals. If you like this new release, I heartily recommend you check them out.

So, fast forward to 2008(ish) and Pete’s moved to London to see if the paths are paved with musical gold. He finds himself introduced to the movers and shakers in the so-called nu-folk scene where he gets late notice to rehearse Laura Marling’s debut album with a view to becoming the main accompaniment on her tour a few days later. Two years on, he’s an integral part of Laura’s backing band, touring the world with the Mercury nominated waif, often providing an acoustic support slot. In a month's time Pete and Laura support Bob Dylan at Hop Farm - heady days indeed.

Now he’s released the Merry-Go-Round EP on new label Communion Records (part created by Mumford and Son’s Ben Lovett). It comes in the most striking packaging I’ve seen in…well, forever. An octagonal cover dressed in mock gold leaf, turn it over and 8 folds of merry-go-round horses open up to reveal the disc itself. Be careful to note the order of the folds mind, ‘cos I can’t seem to get mine back together!

Onto the music, ‘Bellina’ opens with a rhythm you’d get supping scrumpy on the back of a cart returning full of hay after a hard day’s graft in the field. Swaying along, Pete’s serenade of a girl advises her “it’s a fine old time to run away with me”. ‘Oh Susannah’ is altogether different, this time telling a tale of love lost and like most of us musing about what might have happened if we’d had the balls to sweep that girl off her feet.

‘Underneath the Apple Tree’ is another whimsical tale, perhaps inspired musically by his work with Laura Marling or Johnny Flynn, this track signals a change in style for not only the EP, but for Pete overall. Title track ‘The Merry-Go-Round’ rounds up the offering and is quite simply his best song to date. The metaphor is not lost as Pete’s gentle ballad describes the positive and negatives of the merry-go-round. The melody here is haunting and is hard to reference - maybe we should refer to it as Pete Roe’s own style. It is a song as beautiful as the packaging of the EP, and deserving of a wide audience.

Pete Roe brings the sound of rural summer to your home and he is ready to be introduced as the next West Country success story, and don’t forget that Bristol is currently Britain’s best musical city!

See his Myspace page for further live dates.

Links:
http://www.communionmusic.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/peteroe